Page:Once a Week Jun to Dec 1864.pdf/582

Nov. 12, 1864.] the matter the more strongly did the conviction force itself upon his mind that the system of portholes, which was inseparable from a broadside armament, was not only fraught with needless danger to the gunners, but was, at all events from the moment that we began to cover ships with iron plates, a source of weakness to the ship; and consequently the more was he led to adhere to his principle of the shield. But, if the gun had to be trained within the shield, it was clear that it would still require a porthole. To obviate this he presently hit upon the idea of making the shield itself revolve upon a turntable, so that what should be trained should be not the gun by itself, but the shield containing the gun, and thus mounted the gun would require an opening only very little larger than its muzzle. There were still many points to be considered, especially with respect to rigging, steam-power, &c., before a design, framed for a coasting raft could be made available for a large ship fitted to contend with an Atlantic gale, or to take its place in a line of battle. But all difficulties yielded before a resolution to surmount them, and at last, in June, 1860, he produced a design for two classes of ships, one suited for home service only, the other capable of long and distant voyages; and in a lecture which he delivered at the United Service Institution, he fully explained the details of his plan, and all the advantages which he expected to derive from it, especially in action; he pointed out that a ship armed on his principle, with her guns placed, as he proposed, along her centre, would be free from that roll, so disconcerting to the gunner’s aim, which, independently of any smoothness or roughness of the sea itself, is caused by the mere working of the guns when placed at the side of the ship; while the character of the shields, revolving round the entire circle, would enable the fire of all the guns to be concentrated on any point on either side except one exactly fore or aft, the end turrets being able to command those points also. He explained also his plans for ventilation, and for getting rid of the smoke, so that the captain of each gun would always be able to see his object: while his vessel, though having her guns higher out of the water than could be the case in any ship armed on the broadside principle, would yet have her gunwale nearer the water, and so would offer a far smaller target to the enemy; and finally, he proved that a vessel so armed would require a much smaller crew; would be, in fact, not only cheaper in her first construction, but infinitely cheaper in her maintenance in an effective state, and in her whole subsequent working. His scheme, as proposed on this occasion, embraced a row of nine turrets, each containing two guns of 100 lbs. each; and as the Warrior, our first iron-plated ship, which had been commenced in May, 1859, was to have a broadside of something over 1600 lbs., of which only 13 68-pounders were to be protected by armour, he contrasted with that force the 1800 pounds of shot which the revolving power of his shields or turrets would enable his vessel to throw on either side at pleasure, pointing out with self-evident truth that the effect of a ship’s fire would depend, not so much on the mere weight of her collected broadside, as on the smallness of the number of the shot which made up that weight. The originality, boldness, and undeniable plausibility of the plan, while it startled some, who thought, as indeed they still think, that Captain Coles, like other men proud of, and confident in, their inventions, was disposed to underrate the objections to it, and to overrate the evils attendant on 